A few clients recently asked us for more details on the roles and responsibilities of the KCS Council. There is good general guidance in the KCS v6 Practices Guide and the KCS v6 Adoption Guide, but it’s not especially specific. So, with input from Ryan Mathews, Jacob Watts, Monique Cadena, and Jennifer Crippen, I thought I would lock myself in my room for a while to see what I could spin up. Here’s the result.
As you see from the subheadings below, there are three different, yet important, sets of roles. The KCS Council itself has responsibilities, but so do KCS Council Subteams (initially called Adoption Subteams) and the members of the Council individually.
The KCS Council
Governance
Review and approve the following
- Adoption plan and timelines
- Strategic Framework and other executive messaging
- Significant changes to tools, including self-service, in-product support, chatbots, and proactive / preventative knowledge delivery and automation
- Proposed changes to job descriptions and performance management goals
- Article templates
- Knowledge worker coaching, licensing, and publication model
- Recognition plans
Oversight
Review the following and determine actions to be taken when needed
- Dashboards for program health
- Dashboards for program business value
- Metrics shared with leadership at Quarterly Business Reviews, Operations Reviews, etc.
- Questions, objections, and observations from Council members
- Summaries of Knowledge Domain Analysis (KDA): actions planned and taken
KCS Council Sub Teams
Program Documentation
Create and keep up to date
- Content Standard and Content Standard Checklist
- Strategic Framework
- Communications Plan
- Input for job descriptions and performance management goals
- Input for technology workflows and user stories, starting with the Solve Loop workflow
KCS Council Members
Advocacy
- Evangelize for the program within their teams / geographies
- Support the implementation of the Communications Plan within their teams / geographies
- Make themselves available to answer questions and handle objections
- Ask team members about their experiences with the knowledge base and KCS
Distant Early Warning
- Provide the KCS Council with updates on the state of adoption in their teams / geographies
- Share positive feedback as well as concerns and objections they’re heard
- Share observations about what’s working well along with inhibitors, issues, and opportunities for improvement
Certification
- Become KCS v6 Practices Certified (recommended) or KCS v6 Fundamentals Certified
Does your KCS Council and its members do these things? Do they have other responsibilities that aren’t captured here? Please share your experiences in the comments!
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